Inside NoVa: Dominion turning away from controversial route for Prince William power line
Dominion Energy is moving closer to abandoning controversial plans to build a new power line along Carver Road in Gainesville, though the utility remains adamant that the project is necessary to serve customers all over the western half of Prince William.
In an Aug. 16 legal filing, the company alerts state regulators that it “likely will have no choice” but to ask for permission to build the 230-kilovolt transmission line on towers along Interstate 66 instead. Dominion first proposed that route for the project, commonly known as the “I-66 Overhead Route,” back when the company declared its intentions three years ago to build the power line to reach a new data center in Haymarket.
But Dominion officials have long said they’d rather construct the line along a Norfolk-Southern railroad line to minimize the project’s impacts on nearby homes and businesses, yet Prince William’s Board of County Supervisors worked with a local homeowners association to block that route. So the utility turned its attention to the Carver Road route, kicking up fierce pushback from the predominantly African-American community.
Dominion then discovered even that route may be out of reach, as the county owns some property along its path. The company asked regulators for a delay in proceedings to negotiate with the county, but the utility’s lawyers wrote in this latest filing that, “it appears likely that the board also will block the constructability of the Carver Road route.”
“We will continue to work with the county on anything we may need…but it seems the I-66 Overhead option has significant benefits over the other routes,” Greg Mathe, the company’s manager of electric transmission line communications, said on a call with reporters. “Namely, we’re looking at its directness in connecting from the Gainesville area to the proposed substation, its co-location with existing infrastructure along I-66 and that it’s the least costly of the remaining options.”
Mathe added that the company is still reviewing the “Madison route,” which would largely hew to the Carver Road path before running further west to follow James Madison Highway. The utility had originally hoped to negotiate with county supervisors to put the “railroad route” back on the table, but the Aug. 16 filing made no mention of progress on that front.
Supervisor Pete Candland, R-Gainesville, said in an interview that he’s relieved to hear that the Carver Road route may be off the table. But he also believes the company is “jumping from route to route” and is in “disarray” after bowing to “political pressure” surrounding the Carver option.
Candland is also no fan of the overhead route, noting that county activists and local lawmakers largely began their efforts to oppose the project when Dominion first proposed that option.
“We fought this before and it looks like we’ll have to fight this again,” Candland said. “This is a poke in the eye to the people of Prince William County because it impacts the most people of all the routing plans. It goes by the most businesses and homes, and eliminates any expansion of I-66 because it sits right next to the highway.”
In all, Candland argues that “none of these proposed routes are safe,” repeating his long-held belief that the project isn’t even necessary to serve Prince William residents. Like many activists, he feels the whole project is meant for “one large business who wants power and wants the taxpayers to pay for it.”
He’s referring to the owner of the Haymarket data center that would connect to the power line: VAData, a subsidiary of online retail giant Amazon, which has refused to comment publicly on the project. A group of activists known as the Coalition to Protect Prince William County and the Somerset Crossing Homeowners Association filed briefs with state regulators making similar arguments, prompting the Aug. 16 response from Dominion.
“Our brief clearly shows the need for the project won’t go away,” said Steve Chafin, the company’s director of electric transmission planning and strategic initiatives. “If anything, the need has really increased.”
Indeed, the company’s lawyers argue in the State Corporation Commission filing that planned developments in the county’s western half will only exacerbate power demands in the area in the coming years.
Dominion also works in the brief to shoot down concerns raised by the coalition and the homeowners association about a March 8 meeting with federal regulators. The project’s opponents claimed that VAData’s attorneys mentioned at that gathering that the company may never construct two of the three buildings planned for the site, and would only need the power line if the third and final building is ultimately erected.
Elena Schlossberg, the coalition’s executive director and one of the March meeting’s witnesses, doesn’t think much of those claims.
“Dominion prefers to use alternative facts, while the coalition will remain dedicated to using real facts,” Schlossberg said.
Candland believes both Dominion and VAData have “lost all credibility in this discussion,” and he wonders why the companies waited until August to clarify the contents of a meeting held in March.
“In order to get to the bottom of the conflicting messages, I suggest that Amazon’s counsel and Dominion executives be sworn on a witness stand, carefully cross-examined and made to produce internal documents regarding data center construction timetables and power usage,” Del. Bob Marshall, R-13th District and another one of the meetings attendees, wrote in a statement.
State regulators will get the chance to evaluate this latest round of Dominion’s arguments, with the coalition and homeowners association set to file their formal responses by Sep. 8. The State Corporation Commission will then decide whether to hold another hearing on the evidentiary basis for the project, and Dominion is also set to file papers finalizing what route it wants to pursue by Sep. 22.
Between now and then, Schlossberg has a pointed request for one of the project’s key figures.
“Amazon needs to weigh in and needs to stop behaving like a corporate coward and step up to the plate,” Schlossberg said.